Last weekend's grandly named People's Assembly saw the Socialist Workers Party adopt a highly contradictory position on the crucial question of defence of democratic rights, including the right to free speech. Peter Manson reports

Socialist Worker has begun a series of articles by Sally Campbell. They purport to explain the origins of women's oppression. However, there exists an obvious lacuna in her account. If women became unfree, when and how did they become free? Camilla Power of the Radical Anthropology Group insists that sex played a big role in the human revolution - a taboo subject for the SWP

The elevation of Communist Party of Britain chair Anita Halpin into the media spotlight over the last couple of weeks has been one of the more unlikely stories of the political year. Lawrence Parker reports